In recent years, as the problem of global warming has grown more serious, efforts are being made to expand the use of natural energy sources (renewable energy sources) such as sunlight, wind power, water power, and geothermal energy as energy sources to replace fossil fuels such as petroleum and natural gas. Such natural energy is at present being converted almost entirely into energy in electrical forms, but electricity is unsuited to storage in large amounts, and transport losses are also large. Accordingly, in recent years the possibility is being studied of employing natural energy sources to produce and effectively use hydrogen, which can be stored in large amounts and transported over long distances, as hydrogen energy.
In addition to the merits of enabling storage and transport, hydrogen is present in inexhaustible amounts on the earth in the form of water and various compounds, and provides large amounts of power as energy used in rocket fuel and the like. Moreover, even when combusted, only water is generated upon reaction with oxygen in air, so that hydrogen is a clean energy source that does not entail emission of carbon dioxide or atmospheric pollutants, among other advantages.
Moreover, because there are quantitative limits to natural energy sources within Japan, the future possibilities of using natural energy sources within Japan to produce large quantities of hydrogen, and of storing and transporting same to resolve energy problems within Japan, are being studied.
Given this background, in conjunction with expansion of the use of hydrogen, establishment of technology to store and transport hydrogen is an urgent matter, and one matter related thereto is the development of a fluid handling device (loading arm) for handling liquid hydrogen.
Such a fluid handling device is used for tasks to handle various fluids, such as liquefied natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas, between tankers at sea and storage facilities on land. In the past, due to unpredictable movement of the tanker resulting from strong winds, storm surges, tsunamis, or the like, rupture of the fluid transport line between fluid handling devices on the sea side and on the land side has occurred, with the possibility of exterior outflow of the fluid being transported. Accordingly, in order to prevent the occurrence of such problems, or, in the event that a conflagration or other unforeseen situation has occurred on either the sea side or on the land side, in order to prevent the spread of damage to the other side, an emergency detachment device is provided to rapidly shut off the transport (passage) of fluid in an emergency using an emergency shutoff valve. After it is ensured that the fluid is flowing to the exterior, the transport line is separated both on the sea side and on the land side, to reduce the loads born by the transport line on both the sea side and on the land side.